I think this is good and right provided AZ can keep the wider vaccine rollout going, I just wonder if there's been any communication from above that this should happen with Pfizer stock, or if clinical staff are just making their own call.
The vaccines | vaxxed boosted unvaxxed? New poll
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
I know of one member of care home staff in Lancashire that was vaccinated today, others declined, so the vaccinated were invited to bring relatives in rather than waste what was left, and several went down straight away to be done. Makes sense.
Doesn’t look like it, no.
From the Grauniad:
The speed at which they’re doing this is incredible. I’d love to know how it’s being achieved. Is it just a case of throwing a shit-load of money at the problem? If so, surely the cost-benefit means the same approach would work elsewhere?
I don't think giving the vaccine will be the bottleneck anywhere in about 2-3 weeks. It will be the lack of doses.
In an ideal world no country would be getting doses to vaccinate people under 50, before people over 60 are vaccinated everywhere, imo.
The priority distribution age should in my opinion centre around which age demographic are dominanting the ICU wards, because ICU capacity is ultimately going to dictate how long restrictions are here for.
Agreed. Lack of supply will very soon be the bottleneck everywhere. Moderna seem to be really struggling to meet their commitments.
But you have to admire how quickly the Israelis are using up the stock they do have. I’m sure their over 60s will be all vaccinated long before U50s get their dose (HCPs excluded)
Phrased that poorly. I meant Pfizer should not give Israel more doses after they have vaccinated over 50s. And from then on give doses to other countries. But that was meaningless thought process without any real world possibility, anyway.
Didn't Israel order only after EU, so basicly they are jumping the queue, or do I missremember.
Oh right. Yeah. As you point out, we can’t expect a commercial entity to ensure its product is ethically distributed. That’s where international diplomacy comes in. It does seem morally wrong that Israel will be vaccinating 20 year olds while the virus is still killing thousands of elderly people all over the world but that would be just one example of health inequalities we’ve been living with for years.
Apparently Israel jumped the queue by paying a premium price. This also seems morally wrong but hey ho, capitalism innit.
Interesting article about Israel here. They’re vaccinating 150,000 people per day. That would have ever man woman and child in Ireland vaccinated by the end of this month!
How’s the rollout going in Finland?
This is the summary report from the JCVI on how to increase the short-term impact of the vaccination programme.
For anyone that thinks these estimated figures couldn't be optimistic readings of flawed models based on limited inputs, motivated by a desire to boost public confidence in the public health measure in a crisis situation, it's worth reflecting back on what Fauci said a few weeks ago about another critical measure...
It seems a little curious that the Pfizer vaccine is estimated to be less efficacious after 1 dose (89% after 1, 95% after 2) but Oxford's vaccine is believed to be more efficacious after 1 dose (73% after 1, 62% after 2). Along with some vague descriptions about it being reasonable to assume that protection will wane after the first dose over the "medium term", but we've happily landed on a precise 12 week period for when protective immunity will "likely" last.
For anyone that thinks these estimated figures couldn't be optimistic readings of flawed models based on limited inputs, motivated by a desire to boost public confidence in the public health measure in a crisis situation, it's worth reflecting back on what Fauci said a few weeks ago about another critical measure...
It's refreshing to hear public health experts plainly acknowledge "we really don't know what the real number is". I wonder when the UK will finally acknowledge that about their estimates.
Some may say it's refreshing but some may also be turned off or get tired by this redrawing of lines. Politicians often get slaughtered if they deliberately use lower goal posts to start with knowing that they'll raise the bar anyway.
(I agree with Fauci and his overall strategy btw., just think it's a slippery slope either way.)
The Moderna vaccine has now been approved for use in the UK, although it's not expected to be available until the spring.
What is the effectivity rate for that one as haven't seen the percentage listed on the reports I've read.
I'm sure it was mid 90's similar to the Pfizer one.
Our care home staff and residents are being vaccinated on Monday. Can't wait!
The vaccination strategy has been presented in Belgium today. By the end of the summer everyone in Belgium should be vaccinated. By June they'll start with the general public. There will be 200 vaccination centers across the country.
Nearly 60 percent of corona deaths occurred in residential care centers so they will be vaccinated first, both residents and people who work there. After them all people who work in health care, people over 65 and risk patients.
Nearly 60 percent of corona deaths occurred in residential care centers so they will be vaccinated first, both residents and people who work there. After them all people who work in health care, people over 65 and risk patients.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/1feb5358-fbf4-4508-8a11-ba9093a6050a
Encouragingly, Pfizer vaccine seems to work against the mutations on the South African variant, the one causing the most concern.
Encouragingly, Pfizer vaccine seems to work against the mutations on the South African variant, the one causing the most concern.
Anyone else find this a bit puzzling?
Of all the things to struggle with in vaccination development, you'd think measuring the volume of something would be pretty low down the list. Yet BioNTech and Oxford both did it in completely different ways, months apart.
Great silver lining though!
They've known from the first few days of vaccination that there was 6 doses rather than 5 in each vial...how did they not know that when they were carrying out the trial, and how did it take them a month to confirm that? I'm sure I read that in many cases the 1 dose went unused because people were following the guidelines, mostly in the US from what I remember.
Of all the things to struggle with in vaccination development, you'd think measuring the volume of something would be pretty low down the list. Yet BioNTech and Oxford both did it in completely different ways, months apart.
Great silver lining though!
I read that it was to do with the bung in the vial. It was only tested to be viable after being pierced five times. Maybe they did some extra testing? Or used a different bung? It’s not unusual for vials to contain more than the necessary quantity, to give a bit of leeway for wastage.
It depends on the type of syringe that is being used apparently. It was all over the news here. Belgium has the 'right' kind, Netherlands don't for instance.
Mum just received her 1st Pfizer jab (2nd one will be in 3 weeks) as she’s a healthcare worker. Totally over the moon by this as I was avoiding her as much as possible for the last few months with the anticipation of the vaccine, science is amazing.
This doesn't mean of course that she can't transmit it to you (at least I think this hasn't been proven yet).
Which highlights Brwned and Pogues concerns in the other thread of people naturally relaxing, feeling safe and becoming complacent resulting in a surge in February , made up for your Mum though Rajma must be nice to know she is safe.
Nah, will only let myself loose a bit around her when a week passes after the 2nd jab as per recommendations when full efficacy is achieved. However, in general it does seem like the end is on the horizon, finally.
Sinovac is starting to report trials efficacy numbers. Unfortunately what they mean isn't yet clear. The sinovac vaccine is a deactivated virus type, delivered as two doses, stored at fridge temperatures. It's main sales so far have been to Turkey, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines.
In December they were reporting 91% from a trial in Turkey - but that trial was a small one and not taken very seriously. Indonesia reported 65% in another limited trial.
Brazil had now released some data on its large scale trial and it's reporting efficacy of 50% to 78% depending on which number you want to hear. The 50% efficacy considers all symptomatic cases, over 70% if you ignore mild cases, and 100% if you look at severe cases. Hopefully they'll give more explanation of what mildest, mild, moderate mean.
The perils of reporting by press release.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ing-global-with-four-different-efficacy-rates
In December they were reporting 91% from a trial in Turkey - but that trial was a small one and not taken very seriously. Indonesia reported 65% in another limited trial.
Brazil had now released some data on its large scale trial and it's reporting efficacy of 50% to 78% depending on which number you want to hear. The 50% efficacy considers all symptomatic cases, over 70% if you ignore mild cases, and 100% if you look at severe cases. Hopefully they'll give more explanation of what mildest, mild, moderate mean.
The perils of reporting by press release.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ing-global-with-four-different-efficacy-rates
Urgh. This is frustrating. As if the amount of vaccine skepticism isn't enough already. I hope someone can standardize the reporting soon.
This report in the FT suggests some in Australia are pushing to delay vaccine roll out to give everyone the mRNA vaccines.
I'd be interested to hear opinions in Australia about this - I feel like I would want to be out from under the shadow of the potential for harsh sudden lockdowns quicker, especially if the rest of the world is starting to open up. Limiting yourselves to just 2 vaccines, which are already struggling to keep up with orders, seems like a recipe for just dragging out the crisis.
"Australian scientists cast doubt on Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine | Financial Times" https://www.ft.com/content/8def3a81-9b80-46a1-9742-f64b80bfc74f
I'd be interested to hear opinions in Australia about this - I feel like I would want to be out from under the shadow of the potential for harsh sudden lockdowns quicker, especially if the rest of the world is starting to open up. Limiting yourselves to just 2 vaccines, which are already struggling to keep up with orders, seems like a recipe for just dragging out the crisis.
"Australian scientists cast doubt on Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine | Financial Times" https://www.ft.com/content/8def3a81-9b80-46a1-9742-f64b80bfc74f
Oxford have acknowledged the variety of efficacy numbers used by themselves and the MHRA on different conditions, but even in their own FAQs they haven’t been able to provide a coherent answer to some of the key questions...
My other half has her first vaccine confirmed for this Saturday, she's community based so it feels that they might have got through the bulk of the priority staff in the NHS already.
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The way they've phrased it, 2nd qs looks like a conflct between theoretical predictions based on phase 1/2 data with observations from phase 3 data.
I'm not too worried about conflicting data, trials have varying methodologies and results in the aggregate are best analysed over long periods in meta-analyses, we'll continue to see case reports about outbreaks but extrapolations to a wider narrative is not something that should be encouraged even in this age of hot takes.
That said there are large scale studies being done that are worth noting (if they meet good evidence based medicine profiles - large sample sizes etc)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israe...-infections-14-days-after-first-vaccine-shot/
The link above points (albeit with preliminary data) to a reduction in transmission with mass vaccination (with variation in percentage numbers). We'll get clearer pictures of things like that in the coming months, not all I suspect will have necessarily be positive.
We're seeing a bit issue in the care homes we are vaccinating in the UK with outbreaks, but strong likelihood a significant amount are patients were in the incubation infected period pre-jab or pre-immunity and risk (as it was an infection in the first week or so post-jab).
That said there are large scale studies being done that are worth noting (if they meet good evidence based medicine profiles - large sample sizes etc)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israe...-infections-14-days-after-first-vaccine-shot/
The link above points (albeit with preliminary data) to a reduction in transmission with mass vaccination (with variation in percentage numbers). We'll get clearer pictures of things like that in the coming months, not all I suspect will have necessarily be positive.
We're seeing a bit issue in the care homes we are vaccinating in the UK with outbreaks, but strong likelihood a significant amount are patients were in the incubation infected period pre-jab or pre-immunity and risk (as it was an infection in the first week or so post-jab).
Asda in the UK now looking to offer vaccination through their in store pharmacies, about 250 a week per store. Could be as much as 800,000+ per month based on their store profile. Hopefully we'll see more supermarkets move on this as it makes sense considering the logistics capability, and geographical locations to have more supermarkets on board.
Are Boots looking to do the same?
Boots are starting tomorrow in Halifax - https://www.boots-uk.com/our-storie...ccinations-in-its-halifax-pharmacy-this-week/
Nadim Zahawi is getting grilled on Sky News now and not handling it very well at all. Can't answer half the questions and keeps going back on himself. Apparently they are looking into delaying the second doses even further than 12 weeks. I think it's safe to say they're chancing it at this point.
It's very confusing for us laymen. Can someone knowledgeable please tell us that the Oxford vaccine is at least as good as any flu virus in terms of efficacy? No numbers please, just simple words.
In a typical year when they correctly guess which flu strains are coming then most people are protected by the jab. In numbers terms, the flu jab in a good year reports efficacy similar to the efficacy of the one dose of Oxford/AstraZeneca against Covid.It's very confusing for us laymen. Can someone knowledgeable please tell us that the Oxford vaccine is at least as good as any flu virus in terms of efficacy? No numbers please, just simple words.
In a bad year, when they miss an important flu strain, the flu jab does worse than the covid vaccines are doing in terms of efficacy.
Like the flu jab, the covid jabs also seem to reduce the severity of the disease even if you do catch it. It's hoped that will mean they reduce the hospitalisations and deaths dramatically, even if the case numbers don't fall as fast.
I watched a bit, that was painful. Doesn't fill you with confidence but I'm sure there's people more capable than him actually managing the process.
Two doses of Oxford's vacccine is better than the typical flu vaccine, yep.It's very confusing for us laymen. Can someone knowledgeable please tell us that the Oxford vaccine is at least as good as any flu virus in terms of efficacy? No numbers please, just simple words.
Maybe if they give you one dose tomorrow and the second dose 12 months later, the second dose won't work as well and it could be worse than the flu. That's very unlikely to happen though. If you're getting it ~ 3 months later as planned, the data shows it's more efficacious than the flu, but only after you've gotten the second dose. In between dose 1 and 2 you're only "partially protected", so in that interim period it theoretically could be worse than the flu, different organisations have analysed that data differently so it doesn't come with the same concrete assessment.
The maintenance guy at another of my companies nursing homes just tested positive on a rapid test 3 weeks after his first Pfizer jab. Hopefully it's a false positive, otherwise its a little worrying.
Aren't false negatives a lot more common than false positives?